A New Day for Parkinson ’s Disease Research Is Near

By STEVEN ZERCOLA The U.S. Department of Health and Human Service (“HHS”) is responsible for a wide range of activities relating to medical and public health. It has 60,000 employees and a $1.7 trillion annual budget with approximately $140 billion for discretionary spending. For the past 13 years, HHS has been spearheading a National Plan for addressing Alzheimer’s disease – with some notable successes. Given its resources, expertise and charter, HHS should launch a National Plan to cure Parkinson’s disease patterned after its approach on Alzheimer’s disease. Legislation, or Not The U.S. House of Representatives has passed H.R.2365, the National Plan to Cure Parkinson’s Disease. The bill would establish HHS as the central point for strategic direction and coordination of PD research.  It would require formation of a broad-based Advisory Panel to provide strategic advice and any on-going course corrections. There is nothing preventing HHS from putting the structure of H.R. 2365 into effect now, and it should do so without waiting for Senate action or inaction. There is no incremental funding required to implement this National Plan, nor is any Congressional approval necessary.  This approach would mark an important step towards finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease, and is well within HHS’s charter. A Cross-Section of Policy and PD Research For those who have studied the application of regulatory policies to Parkinson’s d...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Health Policy Drug discovery FDA Parkinson's Disease steve zecola Source Type: blogs